On 1 June 2023, three-year-old Mitchell Thomas died after suffering smoke inhalation from a fire that started in the roof of a public housing property in the Alice Springs suburb of Larapinta.
A coronal inquest into his death is investigating if the house was "safe and habitable" after preliminary investigations suggest the cause of the fire was "faulty or failing electrical wiring".
An audit of the Northern Territory's public housing stock has found 58 per cent of properties "required immediate remediation works", the inquest has heard.
In his opening address, counsel assisting Coroner Elisabeth Armitage, Paul Morgan, said the inquest will examine if the home was maintained by the relevant NT Government departments in accordance with their statutory responsibilities under the Residential Tenancies Act.
"There was a concern that non-compliant electrical wiring found in the ceiling space of the house may have been the cause of the fire," Mr Morgan told the Coroner.
"This gave rise to the concern that there could be a wider problem in the electrical wiring of social housing premises," he said.
What happened on 1 June 2023
Mr Morgan said Mitchell was left in the care of his 16-year-old uncle while his mother attended an appointment on the morning of 1 June 2023.
Mitchell was watching movies in the living room area while his uncle went to his room for a nap.
Around 10:30am a Triple Zero call was made by a neighbour reporting black smoke coming from the home, as two other neighbours attempted to pry open a window to the locked property.
The two men managed to get the window frame out and get the 16-year-old to safety, who informed them that Mitchell was still inside.
Despite efforts by police officers first at the scene to locate Mitchell, he was later located by fire and rescue, unresponsive in one of the bedrooms.
CPR and a defibrillator were administered at the scene, before Mitchell was taken by ambulance to Alice Springs Hospital where resuscitation efforts continued.
Tragically the child could not be revived, and an autopsy report identified the cause of death as smoke inhalation.
The coronial inquest
After identifying faulty electrics as the possible cause of the fire, an audit of 600 homes used for social housing, which were built around the same time, was conducted.
The preliminary findings found 21 per cent of properties had one or more expired smoke detectors and 10 per cent of properties had a major earthings system fault.
The inquest heard that despite there being recommendations in a previous coronial inquest back in 2007, involving the death of a young girl by electrocution, those recommendations have not been fully implemented by the NT Government over time.
"Your Honour will therefore be eager to hear from the responsible government departments in relation to both the problems identified in the audit, as well as what is being done about those previous Coroner’s recommendations," Mr Morgan said.
The inquest continues.
